Rescuers scour toppled buildings after Taiwan quake kills two and injures more than 200

Rescue workers in the Taiwanese city of Hualien searched for survivors in buildings left tilting on their foundations Wednesday, after an earthquake that killed two and injured more than 200.

Authorities said they could not verify how many residents were still missing after the 6.4-magnitude quake which hit the eastern port city late Tuesday, taking out the lower storeys of a hotel and a residential block.

Rescue workers block off the area to search for survivors outside a building which tilted to one side after its foundation collapsed in Hualien after a strong 6.4-magnitude quake rocked eastern Taiwan early on February 7, 2018. Photo: Paul Wang/AFP.

Hualien is one of Taiwan’s most popular tourist hubs as it lies on the picturesque east coast rail line and near to the popular Taroko Gorge.

Update: So far 29 casualties have been reported. Strong 6.5 earthquake hits eastern Taiwan’s Hualien City. Photos shared on Twitter and Weibo show extensive damage. @CGTN is keep updating the latest, click the link below for the live report. https://t.co/x8mXiYU0YNpic.twitter.com/Zg9rRH6vnZ

The quake hit just before midnight (1550 GMT) around 21 kilometres (13 miles) northeast of Hualien, according to the United States Geological Survey.

It followed almost 100 smaller tremors to have hit the area in the last three days and comes exactly two years since a quake of the same magnitude struck the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, killing more than 100 people.

Most of the deaths from the February 2016 earthquake were from the 16-storey Wei-kuan apartment complex, which toppled on its side and buried many residents in the rubble.

It was the only high-rise in Tainan to crumble completely in the quake, which came two days before Lunar New Year, when many people were visiting relatives for the biggest celebration of the Chinese calendar.

The safety of the building was called into question immediately after the disaster, when metal cans and foam were found to have been used as fillers in the concrete and residents said there had been cracks in the structure.

Five people were found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment over the disaster, including the developer and two architects, with prosecutors saying they “cut corners” that affected the building’s structural integrity.

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